By Matthew Knott

Updated4 March 2016 — 11:47amfirst published at 10:58am

The fight over the future of the ABC is getting personal.

The broadcaster has blasted a push by Coalition senators to overhaul its charter and board appointment process to favour regional Australia as "flawed", "illogical" and an attack on the broadcaster's independence.

In a strongly worded submission, the ABC also suggests Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie is hypocritical for demanding the ABC board include two directors living in regional areas, given she lives in a major city.

Fairfax Media recently revealed that Senator McKenzie, who has led the push to reshape the ABC, lives in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Elwood, despite being regularly described as "Bendigo-based".

Senator McKenzie's private member's bill would amend the ABC's charter to include a commitment to regional Australia and force the ABC to broadcast at least five radio bulletins a day consisting mostly of local news.

The ABC's submission to the bill says the legislation demonstrates "a paucity of understanding of the ABC's operations, its governance structure, and the budget constraints confronting the Corporation" and "relies on a narrow conception of localism, mandates inflexible programming outcomes and ignores the important role played by parts of the ABC outside the Regional Division".

Mandated geographic quotas for the board would hinder the government's ability to choose the best people for the job, it argues in its submission.

"The ABC also disputes the notion that city-residing board members lack the ability to represent regional citizens in their respective states," it states in a clear swipe at Senator McKenzie.

"This is as illogical as arguing that senators must reside outside capital cities if they are to properly represent regional constituents."

Adopting the proposed changes would "serve to significantly reduce the independence of the ABC and its board" and be extremely expensive, it argues.

The ABC argues it already invests about a third of its budget on regional Australia - an amount commensurate to the number of Australians living outside the big cities.